Urban Transport in the OIC Megacities
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4.1.12.3. Urban poor
It is worldwide accepted that a transport system should facilitate access of the poor to urban markets,
services and economic opportunities. The low fares of KRL for example, are deliberately subsidized in
order to maintain affordability of this mode for low income travellers and large sections of the middle
income population who are engaged in long distance commutes to commercial and business activities
in the centre of Jakarta.
In many literatures, TransJakarta as a BRT system is also argued to benefit the lower income
population as it provides cheap and fast transportation. TransJakarta uses one flat fare regardless of
the distance and 70% of the fare per passenger is subsidized by the Government. However, according
to a research done by Wentzel (2010), the use of the BRT among low income residents is low as the
BRT did not embrace low income users according to its destinations. Transport costs might also have
a significant impact in the use as many low income users do not have a BRT stop within reasonable a
walking distance from home.
This finding can be related to the study done by ITDP (2014), where the accessibility of residents of
Kampungs (urban villages with informal housings) along the main BRT routes is researched. One of
the Kampungs researched is Kebon Kacang. The residents could have walked to access the BRT stops
of corridor 12, but their access is completely blocked by office and commercial buildings in this
Financial District area. They need to make a detour to access the stops, which will be more likely done
by a motorcycle due to the distance and motorcycles are restricted in this area during the day.
Eventually, they choose motorcycles over public transport.
Figure 13:Situation of Kebon Kacang area
Source: Consultant